Dental mouthguards have been developed. These are traditionally worn by people who are engaged in physically exertive activity and sports, such as such as football and the like.
Most dental mouthguards comprise a U-shaped base having inner and outer flanges that extend upwardly therefrom. The mouthguard generally embraces the wearer's upper teeth, and functions to cushion the impact of the upper and lower teeth in response to jarring action or impact.
Examples of such prior art dental mouthguards are shown and described in U.S. Pats. No. 4,337,765, 5,152,301, 5,234,005, 6,675,806, 6,691,710, 6,584,978, 6,082,363 and 4,848,765.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,552 is of particular interest for its disclosure of a closely-fitting mouthguard that is placed in hot water to initially soften a thermoplastic material. Thereafter, the user bites down on the softened plastic to impress the pattern of his upper teeth therein. The mouthguard is then permitted to cool and harden. This patent also discloses that a secondary level of adhesion is obtained by the wearer biting on the mouthguard to firmly seat it, and thereafter sucking air from between the guard and the tissues “as one would suck on a small piece of hard candy or a cough drop”. (See, '552 patent, col. 9, line 40 et seq.).
It would be generally desirable to provide an improvement to such a suction-fitted mouthguard.